Chief executives of nonprofit organizations gave their boards grades of D+ in fund raising and C+ in increasing board diversity, according to a national survey whose results were released on Wednesday.
The 2010 Nonprofit Governance Index, unveiled at the annual BoardSource Leadership Forum, in San Francisco, also shows many organizations are still struggling to recover from the recession: Forty-one percent cut or froze staff salaries, 29 percent laid off staff members, and 28 percent dipped into their reserves or endowments.
The survey of 978 nonprofit CEO’s and 780 board members also revealed dissatisfaction about diversity levels in organizations. It showed just 28 percent of chief executives surveyed reported that they were satisfied with the degree of ethnic diversity on their boards. More than 70 percent said they believe racial or ethnic diversity adds value to their organization’s mission.
The survey respondents—executives and trustees alike—agreed that fund raising was the area of board governance most in need of improvement.
The survey is the sixth since 1994 produced by BoardSource, an organization in Washington that focuses on improving nonprofit boards. The group will make the survey results available free on its Web site later this month.
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Comments
1. mollymooregreen - November 11, 2010 at 02:25 pm
Thought this was interesting
2. katecochran - November 11, 2010 at 02:34 pm
I can't help but notice that the "Similar Articles" box shows that this same article was written at least 3 times before. Why can't we make headway on either of these issues? I have a theory that as long as we are shy or equivocal about the role of a board in fundraising, it will always be the thing that they just don't get to.
3. gazelle - November 11, 2010 at 04:07 pm
The failure of Trustee boards to be diverse and to carry out diversity targets at all levels in their programming grants short changes whole groups of the population. Women and girls as a group are not mentioned in the above article. But as they receive only 7% of grants, they should be. While women serve within the philanthropic community in great numbers those diminish especially at the Trustee level.
4. dclaudw - November 11, 2010 at 06:35 pm
The high-school foundation that I recently joined has no diversity. The school population itself is less than 50% White. The foundation meetings are 100% White. This is Georgia, where I just moved from Virginia where everyone of all races is equally concerned about the academics. We recently approved a yellow-haired icon for the school symbol. When I pointed out that the icon did not look like the school population, the White attendees just stared blankly. Yes, diversity is a work in progress with Boards.
5. anthonyla - November 17, 2010 at 06:32 pm
I'm Latino and have been both a board member and ED in the arts. It's hypocritical for Board Source or any other national NPO affinity group to proselytize on this issue. None demonstrate diversity in their own ranks and that includes most foundations, Americans for the Arts, American Association of Museums, Association of Art Museum Directors, etc. These are all-white, old-boy organizations and disgraceful travesties. None bother to invite diversity to the table in their conferences or lectures. Going to an AAM conference feels like some surreal exercise unrelated to today's America. I recently received a listing of the so-called Cultural leaders in the the US and not one of them was a person of color. Please keep your lecturing to yourself.
6. researchsi - November 19, 2010 at 07:51 am
As a relatively new board member, I am struck by the low grade and want to change and better that. The questions I ask are if the board members aware of the scope of their responsibilities, how's the new board being oriented to the company- is it a sink or swim perspective from the staff of the NP? Is the NP screening and picking the right candidates to be on the board-folks who believe their cause and want to help further it? Or is the NP focused on the wallet and the Rolodex of the board member, and not their personal passion and enthusiasm (whatever the color, gender, age) for the NP's cause and long term sustainability. As in any organization, it has to be a right fit for both-to help in the process. Looking forward to reading the survey further.
7. deannaminusvincent - November 23, 2010 at 03:55 pm
Diversity at all levels, age, race, gender, sexual preference, political affiliations, economic, etc. truly assist an organization in expanding its conversations. How can that be a bad thing?